First look at Moncler’s 70th-anniversary collaboration with Thom Browne

‘I wanted it to feel like Thom Browne is hugging Moncler,’ says the American designer of his interpretation of the Italian outerwear brand’s Maya jacket, part of Moncler’s 70th-anniversary celebrations which began with a takeover of Milan’s Pizza Della Duomo last month. ‘The perfect combination of Thom Browne and Moncler, front and back. You see me in the front and Moncler in the back. Or vice versa.’

Indeed, the limited-edition jacket’s design sees hallmarks of both labels combined into a singular hybrid garment, as if in embrace – from the back, a shrunken grey suit jacket, shirt and tie (the undeniable Thom Browne uniform), from the front, a hooded nylon boudin-quilted puffer, in the style of the original Maya jacket. The asymmetric bottom half of the coat evokes Browne’s signature pleated kilts, here married with an elongated quilted panel.

It is not the first time that Browne has worked with the brand; previously, he was creative director of Moncler Gamme Bleu, an offshoot of the label which ran from 2009 to 2017 and showed at Milan Fashion Week. ‘Moncler Gamme Bleu reflects the synergy of Moncler’s expertise in active sportswear and outerwear with the handmade tailoring sensibility of Thom Browne,’ read a release for the A/W 2016 season.

‘Moncler has been such an important part of my last ten years, so this project was something that I really wanted to do – for all the work that I did with Moncler, but also for Remo [Ruffini, the brand’s CEO and chairman]. He acquired the brand not long before I started, so we kind of grew up together. It makes it a very personal project.’

Browne’s approach to the Maya jacket was not unlike the way he would create his Gamme Bleu collections – reinterpreting Moncler’s classic designs through his own irreverent lens, often featuring plays on proportion and shape. ‘I worked with Moncler for so long that I have played with – or re-proportioned – most of its iconic pieces. I know the Maya jacket really well, so for this collaboration I just wanted to do what I did with Gamme Bleu over those years and put half of me in the project, half of Moncler. That’s really what you see in this jacket.’

Moncler has an illustrious legacy of collaboration, most recently with its Genius project, whereby various international designers have been given the opportunity to create collections that marry their own aesthetic with the Moncler DNA. For the 70th anniversary, Browne joins six other creatives in reimagining the Maya jacket – Hiroshi Fujiwara, Rick Owens, Pierpaolo Piccioli, Francesco Ragazzi, Pharrell Williams and Giambattista Valli, the latter previously designing Gamme Rouge at the same time Browne was at Gamme Bleu. These jackets will drop in exclusive weekly drops, with Browne’s launching this week on 22 October 2022.

‘I think with any good collaboration you have to respect who you’re collaborating with, and I think it comes down to mutual respect from both parties,’ says Browne of why these partnerships have proved so successful. ‘Remo has always been generous in making sure that there aren’t any limits. I love seeing what other people are doing and how they interpret the same project – it’s always good to be in a group of such talented people.’

The project is accompanied by a visual campaign by Platon, a Greece-born, London-based photographer best known for his bold black and white portraiture (he has photographed numerous American presidents and world leaders, as well as musicians, actors and cultural luminaries). The American actor Lee Pace – who stars in the recently released Halina Reijn-directed movie Bodies, Bodies, Bodies – appears in Browne’s design in the short film and photographic series. The designer calls Pace ‘part of the family’ (an avid wearer of Browne’s collections, Pace attended the 2021 Met Gala in a custom tuxedo jacket and shorts by the designer).

‘I like working with people who are the best at what they do, and he represents that,’ says Browne. ‘Because this project was so personal I thought it was important to pick somebody who was personal to me.’ 

Moncler Maya 70 by Thom Browne launches October 22, 2022.

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